“Bleeding gums, bad breath, loose teeth, teeth shifting from their original position”, that is, “a decade younger”. These are the clinical signs of “periodontitis, a chronic non-communicable disease” that “affects approximately 50% of Italians in its more moderate forms and at least one in 10 Italians in its more severe forms. The moment in which the dentist or periodontist most frequently intercepts the disease in the patient is around 38-40 years of age, because it is at this time that the patient begins to perceive the first symptoms. In reality, if we were to carry out prevention correctly, we could intercept these symptoms much earlier than when the patient instead begins to notice” the problem. This is how Silvia Masiero, secretary of the Italian Society of Periodontology and Implantology (Sidp), explains the pathology of the oral cavity to Adnkronos Salute, on the occasion of National Periodontitis Day, which is celebrated today.
Thanks to screening, “professionals, dentists, dental hygienists, and even more periodontists, could do prevention – observes Maniero – by intercepting clinical signs before the patient perceives the symptoms”. Prevention of periodontitis is done “essentially with good home oral hygiene rules, using the toothbrush at least twice a day for 2 minutes and using interventional aids in an appropriate manner. The professional” instead can prevent the disorder by performing “hygiene maneuvers with an appropriate method and related to the severity of the pathology”. As a chronic, non-communicable disease, “periodontitis – explains the expert – is a disease supported by dysbiosis, therefore by an alteration of the microorganisms at the level of the periodontium, but this dysbiosis, which is a necessary condition, is not sufficient to cause the disease to develop. This means that there are local, behavioral or systemic risk factors that modify the progression of the disease and the speed with which it becomes more and more serious. And these factors are the equally chronic, non-communicable systemic diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and behavioral factors that, unfortunately, are still very common such as smoking, diet and incorrect lifestyles”.
From a lifestyle perspective, ideally it is “not smoking, because we know that a patient with periodontitis who smokes – concludes Maniero – has a probability of worsening periodontitis 3 times higher than a patient who does not smoke”. And then there are the good habits that “each of us should put into practice: a healthy, balanced diet, with a good vitamin intake, performing adequate physical activity daily: a sedentary lifestyle, for this type of pathology, is considered an aggravating factor”.
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